Verbatim theatre – the use of real, recorded conversations to drive the narrative of a show – has been increasingly popular in recent years. Exponents of the discipline like Alecky Blythe have created community-based projects such as London Road and Little Revolution, while Chris Goode's Monkey Bars viewed the world of adults through the eyes of children. Propolis Theatre – an 11-strong group who are based in Bristol – have with their latest show Spill created a verbatim piece that chronicles the inception of sexual activity among young people. Framed within the setting of a house party, each of the cast breaks away at junctures from the ensemble with their thoughts on a specific experience, or sometimes offers an alternative point of view of a topic from the person who previously spoke.

"What would you choose? Toes for fingers or fingers for toes?" So begins Charlotte Hamblin's provacative drama For Those Who Cry When They Hear The Foxes Scream. Women's stories involving psychiactric care have proven to be fertile ground for plays, especially given the emperical evidence that even in the present day, there is a greater bias for women versus men to need care. Sarah Kane's Cleansed and 4.48 Psychosis (and Terry Johnson's Hysteria) are arguably some of the first examples of this sub-genre. Hamblin's play, while set in a psychiatric facility is actually the relationship of a gay female couple and how in this atmosphere of honesty and candour they can be frank about their own difficulties.

If you've ever seen Variety of Kings, the monthly comedy night near King Cross, then compère Katie Pritchard won't be a stranger to you. Always very funny, with self-deprecating humour that belies a very talented musicial performer, I've previously often wondered when I would get the chance to see her in a solo show, as she definitely deserves the chance to shine.

Last year, theatre company Idle Motion's Shooting With Light delighted audiences and critics alike with its compelling take on Gerda Taro and her experience as a wartime professional photographer with Robert Capa. Their latest play, Voyager, follows Carrie (Grace Chapman) and her connection to NASA's Voyager deep space probes.

A lot of use it is you or anybody else saying what they'd do if they had their time over again. A fat chance they have, haven't they? Time moves on and it takes you with it, whatever you say -- as I know only too well.Sally Pratt, I Have Been Here Before.

Possessing the rich, black humour of a Joe Orton play, Blink.Theatre's Mr Kolpert leaves an indelible mark on the imagination. Directed by Lotte Ruth Johnson, the play can be described as a farcial version of Abigail's Party, with two couples involved in all sorts of antics – all stemming from a 'joke' about a dead body (the eponymous Mr Kolpert) in a trunk in the middle of the room.

While Blink.Theatre has female directors overseeing the double bill playing at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre at the moment, the two plays couldn't be more different in tone from each other. Chaser, the first play (written by by Howard Thompson and directed by Sinead O'Callaghan) can be described as a cross between Frank Marcus' The Window and William Wharton's Birdy.

Rising to the challenge to show the effects of street harassment on women in an accessible fashion, Doll's Eye Theatre have devised Might Never Happen, an evening of sketches based on their own experiences on this matter. The vignettes' incidents will be familiar to most women, but in the interest of playing devil's advocate, other points of view are put across as well, minimising the possibility of anything being didactic.

Tags:

Abigail Tarttelin is a Hackney-based author. Her third novel Dead Girls will be published by Mantle on 3 May. It follows the award-winning Golden Boy, which told the story of an intersex teenager called Max. Comedian, author and broadcaster Rosie Wilby spoke to her.

Become an Associate writer

Monthly archive

Funding partners

Female Arts is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk.